bungie weekly update

The Bungie weekly update made it clear the above picture is an interior screen capture shot of the Powerhouse mulitplayer map and is not concept art as I said earlier. Here’s the other Powerhouse image that was released at the recent X10 event:

Urk says “Technically, the top image above gives you a glimpse into “Powerhouse Level 1.” To get a better look yourself (assuming you’ve spawned in at Green Residence), you’d have to tread lightly through the Rock Garden, head straight past the Boiler Room, skip over the Concrete Walkway (unless you want to drop down into the Upper Spillway to snag some big firepower), and head across the Lower Powerhouse Bridge. While you’re in there, go ahead and smash up all those futuristic monitors. That’s what I do. It makes me giddy. In fact, Tung was trying to give an OMG Serious Face Presentation in Redmond yesterday morning and I made myself quite the nuisance by busting the room up real good while he was droning on and on about all kinds of important adult stuff like “The Production Cycle.”

If you choose to follow in my childish and destructive footsteps you might want to watch out for enemy fire. This little jaunt leading into the lower level is already becoming a well worn path for folks slugging it out in multiplayer. If you make too much noise, you’re gonna draw some well-deserved attention and the Lower Powerhouse Bridge isn’t the only way into this multilevel interior space.”I say, bring on the Beta.

Like this:

The weekly update from Bungie doesn’t give too much away on Halo: Reach details but does give a few glimpses that might interest keen Halo fans.

The update has a long series of questions from fans to Urk. I ‘ve culled the one’s seemlingly related to Halo: Reach

Old Papa Rich asks, “When does Halo: Reach Beta start?” In 2010. You’ll need your Halo 3: ODST disc and an Xbox LIVE Gold account. Sorry for the indefinite answer right out of the gate, but it’s the only one I got for you today.

Spartan_008 asks, “How long is the Halo: Reach screening for the VGA’s? “About two and a half minutes.

Dropship dude asks, “What can we expect to see in this preview on the 12th?” A video from Halo: Reach’s opening cinematic.

Obi Wan Stevobi asks, “Will we be getting some sample audio like we did for ODST?” Dunno. I’d have to ask Jay and he’s busy working on a multitude of tasks you don’t want him to stop working on. Like keeping Marty sane.

UPDATE!: One of those tasks just so happens to be mixing the VGA video’s Foley and score so they both play beautifully off of one other. And it just so happens that not more than fifteen minutes ago Jay treated Robt, Carney, and myself to a sneak preview of the trailer in all it’s majesticness and splendiferous glory. The visuals, orchestration, dialog, and sound effects were all in perfect harmony, damn near erupting out of Jay’s surround sound speakers.

I’d already seen the work in progress way more than my fair share of times with the visuals and score both running in pretty polished and synchronized states, but this was the first time I had the pleasure of seeing it from start to finish with the complete audio package in place. I don’t want to go too far off the deep end here — there’s something to be said for letting you keep your expectations in check — but let’s just say that Marty and Jay are bringing the thunder on the audio side. At one point it felt like the whole room was gonna shatter (and my nipples were gonna tear straight through my shirt).

Good news, my shirt is intact, I’ve got a massive grin plastered over my stupid chip-eating face, and you’ve only got eight more days until you get to see and hear it with your own eyes and ears.

Sketch asks, “Why won’t you tell or show us anything about Reach?” Hmm ok, Sketch is asking me a question that he’ll provide the answer to? The short answer is that it’s… complicated. We’d love to pull back the curtain and share the love but the reality is that we’ve got to juggle a complex world-wide network of PR & Marketing plans laid forth by our publisher that are built with a specific pace and focus to maximize awareness and hype. That said, when the flood gates open, we will have you covered and we’ll find ways to sneak in some special treats for our Bungie.net audience along the way. Stay tuned.